This invention relates to improvement in the art of golf clubs and golf bags, and more particularly, to golf clubs having an adjustable length shaft retractable between fully extended and collapsed positions.
The sport of golfing has enjoyed avid acceptance in the United States and throughout the world for numerous decades.
For at least the last two decades, a number of skilled artisans have sought to make playing equipment more convenient and less bulky for the player. In this regard, one such improvement has been the development of golf clubs having an adjustable length shaft retractable between fully extended and collapsed positions.
Andia in U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,185, discloses a golf club having a shaft which is adjustable in length and which can be tightly locked at the desired length by an internal wedge which prevents inadvertent twisting of the grip relative to the rest of the shaft.
The patent to Kategian (U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,660), relates to a golf club having an axially collapsible shaft comprising a plurality of telescoping tubular sections, which, in fully extended positions, are secured and frictionally held against rotation relative to each other. The golf club sections are releaseably held in a collapsed position by a bayonet slot connection or by a frictional fit between the inside of the outer section and the outside of the ferrule fixed on the neck portion of the golf club in one embodied form of the Kategian invention.
Warnock in U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,170, discloses an adjustable golf club comprising a head having a recess bounded by arcuate surfaces. One stated object of the Warnock invention is to provide an improved club assemblage wherein both the angularity of the head relative to the shaft and the length of the shaft may be conveniently varied to accommodate diverse requirements, and in which the parts can be locked in adjusted positions so as to insure maintenance of the adjustment, as well as to meet tournament rules.
Other golf clubs having collapsible features are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,840,231; 3,829,092; 3,663,019; 3,524,646; 3,102,726; 3,070,370; 2,214,079; and 2,107,983.
While realizing the advantages inherent in a collapsible club, a number of prior devices have had relatively complex interlocking mechanism, and/or suffered drawbacks from a player's standpoint associated with the occurrence of "crimping" or "pinching" of the skin of a player's hand when the telescopic shaft of a golf club was retracted into a collapsed position. Further, a number of prior devices of the frictional locking type were difficult to disengage one tubular section from another, often necessitating the impacting of the grip member of the club against for instance, a concrete surface to cause disengagement of the tubular sections of the golf club shaft.
Those skilled in the art, therefore, have recognized a significant need for an improved golf club which is more conveniently retracted in a collapsed position without required specialized tools and which minimizes the occurrence of "pinch" of a player's hand when the club is in a retracted position. The present invention fulfills these needs.